Safety band guardrail for highways



Feb. 13, 1940. v G. G. GREULICH 2,189,792

' SAFETY BAND GUARDRAIL FOR HIGHWAYS Filed July 21, 1937 F'lEi- PatentedFeb. 13, 1940 PATENT i oFF ce SAFETY BANDGUARDRAIL FOR HIGHWAYS GeraldG. Greulich, Mount Lebanon, Pa.

Application July 21, 1937, Serial No. 154,928

The present invention relates to highway guards and, particularly, tonew and improved means for supporting the guardrail.

An object of this-invention relates to a guard rail having a continuousbelt provided with vertical stays welded to one or more bands of flatstrip steel.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent as the descriptionproceeds, in which:

Figure l is an elevational view of a portion'of the guardrail aspositioned along a'highway;

Figure 2 is an enlarged detailed elevation show-- ing' the bandsattached to thespring mounting members;

Figure 3 isv a side view showing the position of the guard upon thepost;

Figure 4 is a plan showing the manner of attaching the guard to thepost;

Figure 5 is a detailed sectional view showing the locking bar inposition between the inside face of the spring mounting member and thebands;

Figure 6 is a detailed plan of Figure 5;

Figure '7 is a detailed plan showing the bands secured to the verticalstays;

Figure 8 is a detailed plan of another form of i locking bar and themanner of securing the bands in position; and,

Figure 9 is a perspective view of another form of band construction.

In the drawing, the numeral 2 represents a plurality of supporting postspositioned along ahighway. The safety band'guardrail includes one ormore bands 3 of flat steel strips extending The individual bands areconnected together in end-to-end relation to provide a continuous strip.These continuous steel strips are welded,. or otherwise secured in anyconventional manner, to vertical stays 4 of substantially crescent-shapeto thereby produce an integral belt or rail including one or more bandspositioned in superimposed spaced relation to each other.

Secured to said posts and extending therefrom toward the highway areV-shaped metal spring mounting members 5 provided with cut-out portions6 atthe apex thereof. The fiat steel strip bands 3 are positioned withinthese cut-out portions 6 and held firmly against the shoulders I of.said V-shaped mounting members l 5 by means of the'locking bar 8. Thislocking bar which extends vertically throughout the length of saidmounting members 5 is provided with an outstruck flange or tongue 9 toengage the top.

strip of the band3 and prevent said locking bar from dropping downthrough the inside face of 'tion.

zolai s'. '(Cl. 256-131) I the spring mounting members and the bands 3.The locking bar is tapered at its bottom end to facilitate insertionthrough the cut-out portions.

' If desired, the locking bar may be round, as shown in Figure 8, inorder to produce a slight drink or offset portion in the bands 3.

The guardrail of the present invention can be made by passing a seriesof bands or strips 3 through a welding machine to weld the verticalameter for shipment. In installing-the guardrail, the bands 3 areunrolled from the reel along the front of the posts and then lifted intoposi- When in position, with the bands 3 arranged in' said cut-outportions 6, the locking bar Bis dropped down behind the front face ofthe apex of said mounting member 5 and in front of said bands 3. Theends of the continuous belt can be attached, in any conventional manner,to a terminal plate and stretched and'pulled tight.

By providing the vertical stays 4 of a crescentshape with the bands 3welded thereto, the convex face of said stays lies in such a positionthat an object sliding along the outer face of the guardrail would rideby said's'tays rather than engage the same. The guardrail provides aninexpensive construction for holding the rail at a distance from theface of the post so that the hubs or projecting parts of vehicles wouldnot touch the post if they should come in contact with the face of saidrail. 7

In the'form shown in Figure 9, the bands 3 may be, if desired, providedwith a crimp or wave. These bands are usually formed from relativelyhigh carbon steel, and by crimping or waving the individual bandsforming the guardrail, considerable spring effect is obtained when saidbands are under tension and, due to such resiliency, the bands would beeasier to stretch and there would be no-tendency for any one band tosag. Under such a construction, the spring-like action of the bandsforming the guardrailwould not need maintenance attention, after slightimpact from vehicles along the highway.

While I have shown and described a specific embodiment of the presentinvention, it will be seen that I do not wish to be limited exactlythereto, since various modifications may be made without departing fromthe scope of the invention, as defined by the following claims,

I claim:

1. A road guard including a plurality of vertically spaced bands ofstrip steel, the ends of each individual band being secured together inend-to-end relation to form, with the other bands, a continuous unitaryrail, crescent-shaped vertical stays positioned at points along saidrail between said posts and welded to each of said bands forming thecontinuous rail, a V-shaped member supporting said unitary rail inspaced relation to each post, the outstanding legs of each of saidV-shaped members being secured to opposite sides of said posts, saidV-shaped member provided with spaced out-out portions at the apexthereof to receive the spaced bands and means for locking said bandswithin said outout portions, said locking means including an ticallyspaced bands of strip steel, said bands being crimped transversely so asto provide a spring effect when the bands are under tension, the ends ofeach individual band being secured together in end-to-end relation toform, with the other hands, a continuous unitary rail, crescent-shapedvertical stays positioned at points along said rail between said postsand welded to each of said bands forming the continuous rail, a\'-shaped member supporting said unitary rail in spaced relation to eachpost, the outstanding legs oi each of said V-shaped members beingsecured. to opposite sides of said posts, said V- shaped member providedwith spaced cut-out portions at the apex thereof to receive the spacedbands and means for locking said bands within said cut-cut portions,said locking means including an outstruck tongue adapted to engage thetop band of said unitary rail for supporting said locking means withinsaid cut-out portions of said V-shaped member and retaining said bandswithin said cut-out portions of said V-shaped member.

GERALD G. GREULICH.

